IS IT POSSIBLE FOR MAINE TO POWER UP WITHOUT NATURAL GAS ?

 Although we often hear how natural gas makes up 50% of electrical generation in Maine, EIA data reveals Maine's natural gas plants do not run anywhere near 100% of the time and, in fact, in-state hydro out-produced natural gas generation for 2013 and trends would indicate the same for 2014.

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Comment by Dan McKay on February 7, 2015 at 5:51pm

This chart shows the percentage of the various types of renewable sources applied by suppliers to the Maine Renewable Portfolio Standard Requirements. Although the generation chart above this one shows wind as 11% of Maine's generation, this chart shows very little of it is used against the State's Portfolio Requirements. That is because it is being used by other New England States for their portfolio requirements. This bubble of out of state renewable credit demand is growing dramatically, putting Maine in the precarious position of trying to integrate a non-baseload, a non-load following and a non-quick response generation source into our existing and not ready transmission and distribution system. Unforeseen consequences is still alive and well in the halls of Augusta. 

Comment by Dan McKay on February 7, 2015 at 5:15pm

http://www.maine.gov/tools/whatsnew/attach.php?id=636666&an=1

from Maine PUC website under reports submitted by puc

Comment by Art Brigades on February 7, 2015 at 5:03pm

Sorry -  thought it was your chart. Do you have a link?

Comment by Dan McKay on February 7, 2015 at 4:53pm

The chart shows an overall generation of all Maine plants at just under 10 million megawatt-hours, Let's say 9,800,000 megawatt-hours.   9,800,000 x .11(11%) = 1,078.000 megawatt-hours.

1,078,000 divided by 8760 hours( hours in a year ) = 123 megawatts

123 MW divided by 450MW ( nameplate capacity installed ) = .27 ( 27% capacity factor )

The chart comes out of the PUC report and I assume the generation numbers come from the EIA.

Comment by Art Brigades on February 7, 2015 at 4:13pm

Understood that your chart represents generation, but if wind is only 11% of state capacity and it only runs 25% capacity factor, it seems high that you calculated 11% generation.  Just wondering if your chart has been verified.  The Wind lobby was hooting in 2014 about reaching 7% of generation. 

Comment by Dan McKay on February 7, 2015 at 3:34pm

These percentages are based on actual production, not capacity.

From 2014 annual report of PUC :

"While typically the largest source of electricity produced in Maine is fueled by natural gas, with hydro being the next largest source, the 2013 data indicates that Maine’s hydro production exceeding natural gas fired production. Figure 8 above shows Maine’s generation levels and fuel mix over time, including the recent increases in wind generated energy. Please note that 2013 is the most recent year for which data is available."

Comment by Art Brigades on February 7, 2015 at 2:56pm

Are those percentages verified?  

11% from wind and 37% from hydro in 2013 both sound high. 

Wind has about 11% of Maine's generation capacity: about 450 installed MW of 4400 MW total state capacity for all generation.

Comment by Dan McKay on February 6, 2015 at 5:33pm

The chart shows the physical generation according to fuel sources. The consumption amount of 12 million megawatt-hours is a separate figure from the PUC report. Much of the wind derived generation is bought by out of state utilities, but is not physically delivered to them , which means Maine has to cope with the physical element of wind and it's come and go attribute that can create operational havoc in transmission and distribution, as well as cause destructive load expectations for compensating plants. Because of the decreasing use of gas-fired electricity, Maine has become an overall importer with most of the import from New Brunswick ( from ISO-NE data ). Maine must start getting serious about the flaws and costs of integrating wind power and develop plans to counteract the driving force from out of state renewable portfolio standards which is the reason for the rapid wind development.  The chart above has Maine at 65% renewable generation, far exceeding the state standard of 40% by 2017. Becoming responsible for other state's renewable standards is surely setting us on a path of energy bankruptcy.  

Comment by Mike DiCenso on February 6, 2015 at 4:44pm

The chart shows elec. gen in Maine, but it does not show how much is exported . Most of the wind is bought by Mass, right? Any wind numbers will be fudged anyway and cannot be trusted.

Comment by Penny Gray on February 6, 2015 at 1:21pm

Okay, thank you Dan.

 

Maine as Third World Country:

CMP Transmission Rate Skyrockets 19.6% Due to Wind Power

 

Click here to read how the Maine ratepayer has been sold down the river by the Angus King cabal.

Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT

******** IF LINKS BELOW DON'T WORK, GOOGLE THEM*********

(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/

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Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law

Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future

"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."

https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/

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